A Political Test of the Carbon Curse: Comparing 3 national climate policies

Very few look to major fossil fuel exporting countries for climate leadership. It is not altogether surprising the Canada and Australia have struggled to date implementing meaningful climate policy. Yet Norway has defied expectations and developed an ostensibly ambitious national climate policy regime.

How was this possible? What explains the variation in climate policy across these three countries?

Nathan Lemphers, a visiting PhD student at the Australian-German Climate and Energy College from the University of Toronto will present preliminary results from his dissertation research. He finds that trade relations, policy networks and ideas that populate them are critical in explaining the policy variations across Australia, Canada and Norway.